arkos_RPi.txt

Manual Install

This version of the Getting Started guide will show you how to navigate the arkOS distribution from the command line on your Raspberry Pi. It is intended to get you started using and testing your Raspberry Pi server if you’d rather not use Genesis or just want to set things up yourself.

First Steps: Installing the Image

Download the latest TAR or ZIP file from the Downloads page and extract the .IMG file from the container. Insert a fresh SD card into your computer’s SD card port.

Linux

On Linux, all you need to do is run the following, replacing the “/dev/sdX” with the device identifier of your memory card:dd bs=1M if=/path/to/arkos-2013-03-18.img of=/dev/sdX

(If you don’t know the device identifier, insert the memory card and run fdisk -l .)

This will set up a ~2GB image on the SD card for you to play with. If your card is larger than 2GB, you can expand the image to give you as much space as you need on the card. To do this, run fdisk /dev/sdX with the proper identifier in place. Type p, and note the number corresponding to the beginning of the second partition (should be 186368). Type d, then 2 to delete the second partition. Then type n, then p, then 2 to create a new partition in the old space. Make sure the partition starts with the same number as you noted before (should be 186368), and it will automatically end at the end of the available space. Type w to exit the program. This recreates the second partition but automatically sets it up with the rest of the available card space. Finally, run resize2fs /dev/sdX2, making sure that the identifier ends with the number of the resized partition.

Mac OS X

On Mac OS X, get the device identifier for your memory card with:diskutil list

From there, make sure the card is unmounted, replacing the “/dev/sdX” with the proper identifier:

diskutil unmountDisk /dev/sdX

Then you can run the same command as Linux to actually copy the image, with the same identifier as above.:

dd bs=1M if=/path/to/arkos-2013-03-18.img of=/dev/sdX

Windows

On Windows, it’s a bit more difficult, as we don’t have access to those neat commands that do the work for us. You will need to install and use Win32DiskImager. Once you have it, select the image file you previously extracted, select the drive letter of your memory card, then click Write.
Booting Up

Once the image is written successfully to your SD card, eject it from your computer, insert it into your Raspberry Pi and start it up. You will see readouts as the different system processes start. Eventually you will be delivered to a command prompt. The default username is root, and its password is root. Log in with these credentials, then change the password with the passwd command.
Getting Started with Software

You can install server applications with:

pacman -S <appname>

This command will check with the arkOS package repositories to find the software you are looking for, and will download and install the software to your RPi. It will also install any dependencies that software might need to run properly. So, if you wanted to install the web server application (nginx), you would run:

pacman -S nginx

To remove a program, change the -S to a -R. To check for software updates, periodically run pacman -Syu .

Here is a short list of server software that arkOS is compatible with to date, and links to pages to configure them:

    SSH – openssh.
    Web Server – nginx. The configuration file is /etc/nginx/nginx.conf. By default, anything stored at /srv/http will be at the base level of your web server.
    SQL/PHP – php, mysql. Combine these with nginx, and you can run a great deal of web applications from your server.
    Email Server – postfix for sending/receiving mail, and dovecot for storing it for use with IMAP clients.
    Tent Server – tentd-admin-git. This current package is for TESTING ONLY as it is unstable and uses software that may not be supported in future versions of arkOS. Once installed see this README for how to set it up.

Starting, Stopping and Using Servers

Once installed, server software is managed via the systemctl command. The syntax is:

systemctl <operation> <appname>

These are the operations that you should know:

    start – Immediately starts the server app.
    stop – Immediately stops the server app.
    enable – Set this server app to automatically run when your RPi starts.
    disable – Keep this app from starting automatically when your RPi starts.
    status – Print out a log message showing if the app is running or not, or if it has any errors.

So, for example, if you wanted to set your web server (nginx) to start every time you boot your Raspberry Pi, you would run systemctl enable nginx. Remember, though, that if there are any errors with how you’ve manually configured your apps, they will likely not start, and systemctl will tell you that they failed. For that, you can always run systemctl status <appname> to get more details about the problem.
Advanced Options

Your RPi is set to automatically connect to the Internet via a connected ethernet cable and DHCP. If these do not match your desired configuration, you will need to modify.

If you need to set a static IP address, copy a sample profile from /etc/netctl/examples to /etc/netctl. Edit the profile as needed (modify Interface, Address, Gateway and DNS). Disable the old profile with netctl disable ethernet, then run netctl enable $newprofile with the filename of the new profile in place. Reboot your Pi and the network will be connected on startup.

If you need to connect via a USB wifi dongle connected to the RPi, run wifi-menu and choose your wifi network from the menu. Then, run netctl enable $ESSID with your WiFi access point name, and your RPi will connect to this same network automatically on startup.

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